Biting the bullet (soa)

FatVonD

As the thread title says I'm finally biting the bullet and posting my SOA, some of the amounts aren't quite right (like the cable TV one which varies) and I'm not sure which insurance amount is for which but the total is right. I've not included car tax as I don't recall what it is. I also forgot to include my overdraft which will be about £600 by the end of the month. The TV figure includes internet and landline.

Basically, my credit card will come to the end of its 0% deal in January plus I will also have a tax bill which I *think* will be about £3,000 from when I was still freelancing.

I've been looking into taking out a bank loan to combine the two but it works out at about £150.00 per month for about 5 years. I'm unsure whether I'd be better off trying to get another 0% deal for the CC and adding the tax bill to my mortgage (or putting the tax bill on my CC and keeping my fingers crossed I could move the whole lot to a 0% deal.)

In addition to the CCdebt (which I've been moving around for about 3 years now :eek: ) I have a Mr T CC which I've never used so I'm thinking I should cancel that before applying for another?

DH earns very little and what he does earn pays for his son's fares to college and a takeaway and odd bits of shopping though I've broached the subject of moving the gas bill to his account so I'd be £62.00 better off there.

I've managed to sell around £400 worth of stuff on ebay last month to whittle my overdraft down a bit so only bits and pieces left to sell now. All Christmas presents are bought.

All advice gratefully received


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1911.04
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1992.24

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 789.1
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 190
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 62
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 31.58
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 280
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 30
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 22.57
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 235
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 28
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14.99
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 18.99
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 80
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1919.35


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 301000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 96000....(789.1)....4
Total secured & HP debts...... 96000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CC.............................4000......50........0
Tax bill TBC...................3000......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........7000......50........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,992.24
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,919.35
Available for debt repayments........... 72.89
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 50
Amount left after debt repayments....... 22.89

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 301,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -96,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,000
Net Assets.............................. 198,000

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

FatVonD

Sorry, should say, mortgage is over 12 years due to my advancing years if the amount seems odd :rotfl:

My phone is PAYG and I put about £5 every 3 months on it. DS's phone is on contract and is included in the £28.00 pocket money.

1StepDebt

The main things I see is the Cable/Satelite figure of £55.

I know you say this includes internet and landline but these two services can be had for £10 per month so you could cancel Sky and save £45 per month. Freeview is sufficient for anyone in debt.

The second figure is groceries. By shopping in Aldi/Lidl, you should be able to cut this by at least £55.

The above two steps will give you an extra £100 per month to pay off the credit card.

You have no figures for Road Tax, Car Maintenance, Presents or Emergency Fund.

Are you really buying no presents for Christmas and what are your plans if, for example, your boiler breaks down?

midnight_express

Why doesn't your OH WORK ?

HappyMJ

Is £30 per month an accurate figure for Fuel for the car. It isn't much at only £7 per week. If you are going to give these figures to a creditor do not put anything under Satellite/Cable TV and put the figure under Telephone instead. Consider reducing the package to the minimum and consider switching to a cheaper ISP. You aren't in a huge amount of debt so it's up to you whether you keep it or not.

Make rules regarding the landline...i.e Never call mobiles or premium rate numbers and keep all local/national calls under 1 hour so that they are included in the free calls. Then your bill will never vary and will always be whatever you can get it down to such as Tesco's £25 a month all inclusive unlimited internet, unlimited 01/02/03 calls inclusive of line rental. Link but if you do join then go through a cash back website first...or clear your cookies after looking at it...http://www.tescobroadband.com/tesco-broadband/anytime-package

Tixy

I wouldn't be looking to add the tax debt (or any unsecured debt) to your mortgage.

I would try to find the missing figures such as the car tax and budget for things like presents if you spend on them and redo including your mortgage.

There isn't masses that could be reduced on your expenses but I would look at - groceries, try looking at the downshift plans on this forum and see if you can reduce this to around £200 a month.

Media package - try shopping around for these to see if you can reduce, if you switch to freeview and get a low cost combined deal for phone & internet these can be around £25 a month

What does other travel relate to? is it essential and is it the most cost effective way of buying tickets? (eg season tickets/offpeak tickets etc).
You are spending very little of petrol a month, is it worth running a car for those fuel miles - could you manage of public transport instead? this would free up road tax, insurance, mot & servicing costs etc as well as giving you a lump sum from the sale of the car.

How big is your property - would it be feasible to consider renting out a room to help with income.

Is OH able to increase his income at all? Rather than buying takeaways and odd bit of shopping could he take on a bill or pay a little in to your account each month? Is his son not able to get help for his college fairs/claim any benefits?

How recently have you shopped around for gas & elec suppliers/tariffs? may be worth doing to see if you can get any saving there.

Also try to work out how much your tax bill will be as soon as you can. If you have an accoutant also talk to them about asking HMRC to allow you to repay in installments.

FatVonD

1StepDebt wrote: »

The main things I see is the Cable/Satelite figure of £55.

I know you say this includes internet and landline but these two services can be had for £10 per month so you could cancel Sky and save £45 per month. Freeview is sufficient for anyone in debt.

The second figure is groceries. By shopping in Aldi/Lidl, you should be able to cut this by at least £55.

The above two steps will give you an extra £100 per month to pay off the credit card.

You have no figures for Road Tax, Car Maintenance, Presents or Emergency Fund.

Are you really buying no presents for Christmas and what are your plans if, for example, your boiler breaks down?

Christmas presents are already bought and and I pay £28.00 per month (not on soa ) for boiler maintenance!

We don't get any TV reception (living in a railway cutting!) without cable but am toying with the idea of saying I'm moving out and that DH (who has a different name) is the new owner to get a better deal?

FatVonD

midnight_express wrote: »

Why doesn't your OH WORK ?

He does work but his profession (black cab driver) has been hit badly by the recession, most of what he earns goes on his cab rental.

HappyMJ

FatVonD wrote: »

Christmas presents are already bought and and I pay £28.00 per month (not on soa ) for boiler maintenance!

We don't get any TV reception (living in a railway cutting!) without cable but am toying with the idea of saying I'm moving out and that DH (who has a different name) is the new owner to get a better deal?

What about switching to Sky's minimum package for a year then ditching them...keeping the dish...and keeping the free channels and the box. I still get hundreds of channels through my 5 year old Sky dish and box. Currently £100 cash back through Quidco and it's £21.50 a month.

FatVonD

HappyMJ wrote: »

Is £30 per month an accurate figure for Fuel for the car. It isn't much at only £7 per week.

I only use the car at weekends so I've allowed 2 lots of £10, for when DS goes to his dad's and £5 for the other 2 weeks of the month.

I need to look into other packages so thanks for the link. Could I keep Virgin for the TV and change the phone and broadband to Tesco?

the_cat

FatVonD wrote: »

He does work but his profession (black cab driver) has been hit badly by the recession, most of what he earns goes on his cab rental.

Really? i know 2 black cab drivers who both support their families without any additional wage from an OH to top it up.

They may of course own their cab which would be a part of it but being effectively self employed, your OH could just work longer hours or less sociable and thus more profitable ones couldn't he?